Archive for April, 2015

Alas for Helix fans, Syfy has canceled the show after the conclusion of its second season, which aired on April 10th. The show’s first season did incredibly well for the network, with the premiere debuting with 1.82 million Live+Same Day viewers, and broke records with a 53% total viewer gain and 64% in the key 18-49 demo on Live+3.

However, with the change of scenery that went with the new season, it appeared that the time-hopping, nature-commune plot lost people, as ratings on average dropped significantly, losing more than half of the total viewers from the first season.

Last week Ben and Ray Lai, owners of Horizon Comics Productions, filed suit in the Federal Court of Massachusetts against Marvel and parent company Disney over claims that Marvel lifted the design of the Iron Man body armor designs from their own title, Radix.

The two allege that after they created Radix in 2001, they worked for a time for Marvel as artists, and that Radix materials had been distributed within Marvel. Then, in 2008 after the Lai brothers left Marvel, the first Iron Man movie came out, with a full mechanized body armor.

In the suit they say that “Marvel’s “Iron Man” comic book character first appeared in 1963. From that time until the first movie in the franchise was released, the comic typically depicted Iron Man wearing simple spandex-like attire and minimal armor.” But with the movie’s updated look and Marvel employees having access to the Radix designs, they believe their designs were lifted for the movies’ more modern high-tech armor.

However, it appears that their description of the “traditional” Iron Man armor isn’t quite accurate. Going all the way back to the first appearance of Iron Man in “Tales of Suspense #39”, we see him in full body armor…pretty clunky, and not unlike the armor Tony Stark built to escape his captors in the beginning of the 2008 movie. And through the years, although artistically you could probably mistake the depiction as being spandex, showing musculature, it was originally stylized full armor. And if you need other examples of full body armor with anatomical design, just do a Google image search for “George Clooney nipple suit” and witness the destruction of a franchise. 🙂

We’ll see what becomes of it. There is in fact a clear resemblance between a poster shot of Stark/Iron Man in a three point stance to a Radix promotional image…

Syfy announced today their Summer 2015 programming lineup, which includes two returning series, 2 new scripted series, a game show…oh, and more sharks…

In June, Syfy’s new 8-11PM scripted programming block kicks off Friday, June 12 at 8PM with the two-hour premiere of Defiance, followed by the debut of Dark Matter at 10PM. On Friday, June 19, Killjoys joins the schedule, premiering at 9PM.

Defiance is the story of a ravaged planet Earth thirty-five years in the future, the lives of its citizens permanently altered following the sudden arrival of seven alien races. In this unknown and unpredictable landscape, the diverse, newly-formed civilization of humans and aliens must learn to co-exist peacefully. Following the events of last season’s cliffhanger finale, the series’ two-hour Season 3 premiere opens on the eve of an impending military siege – and the surprise arrival of the mysterious and nearly extinct Omec, an alien race of warriors.

The new season features cast additions Lee Tergesen (The Americans) as military leader General Rahm Tak, Nichole Galicia (Django Unchained) as Kindzi and Conrad Coates (The Strain) as her father, T’evgin. Returning cast includes Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, Graham Greene and Jesse Rath. Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives, Caprica) resumes his role as executive producer and showrunner.

In the new original series Dark Matter, the crew of a derelict spaceship awakens with no memories of who they are or how they got there. Facing threats at every turn, they have to work together to survive a voyage fueled by vengeance, betrayal and hidden secrets.(continue reading…)

It seems Netflix’s entry into the superhero universe was successful – it has renewed Marvel’s Daredevil, about Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer by day whose heightened senses make him a formidable masked vigilante at night.

The second season will debut on Netflix in 2016. Other upcoming Marvel titles on Netflix include January Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

Paramount has been digging deep in the archives looking for properties that it might be able to turn into TV shows (can’t we get some original ideas guys?), and it appears they may have found a nugget in the form of Galaxy Quest, the 1999 DreamWorks spoof about the stars of a long-canceled SF TV show being taken by aliens to help them against a malevolent enemy.

Nellie Andreeva at Deadline reports that Paramount is developing Galaxy Quest for the small screen, with original feature writer Robert Gordon, director Dean Parisot and producer Mark Johnson all on board to executive produce, with Gordon also expected to write the pilot.

This time we get to see glimpses of the plot – it seems that some group (Universal executives? 🙂 ) don’t want Britt Robertson and George Clooney to escape to Tomorrowland, which looks even more like the 50s/60s Disney-esque future city we thought we’d have by now…with a touch of steampunk to get between the worlds…

From Disney comes two-time Oscar® winner Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland,” a riveting mystery adventure starring Academy Award® winner George Clooney. Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as “Tomorrowland.” What they must do there changes the world—and them—forever.

Featuring a screenplay by “Lost” writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird, from a story by Lindelof & Bird & Jeff Jensen, “Tomorrowland” promises to take audiences on a thrill ride of nonstop adventures through new dimensions that have only been dreamed of.

On the last day of Star Wars Celebration, Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards joined Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, and Pablo Hidalgo in a panel to discuss the “interstitial” Star Wars movies which are taking place outside the main saga stories and will be released in the years in between the saga releases. Kennedy announced that they are calling these movies the Star Wars Anthology Series.

Previous thoughts on Rogue One following the adventures of the Rebels’ Rogue Squadron were squashed as Edwards gave the basic premise, which takes place between Episode III and IV, and will “revolve around a rogue band of resistance fighters who unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring new hope to the galaxy.” Possibly the ones who got the plans to Princess Leia?

A sizzle real was shown (and well received from reports), but is not available online yet. The film will star Oscar winner Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), but other cast members still have not been named.

This leaked out via a lousy cell phone video, so Warner Bros. Pictures has released the official teaser now for Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice starring Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck taking over as Batman.

We still have to wait 11 months for the movie, which opens March 25th, 2016.

At Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim this weekend (no, I’m not there…really wish I was…) they released a trailer for the upcoming Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels – and in it we can see some familiar faces returning…of course Ahsoka is back from Star Wars: The Clone Wars after her appearance at the end of Season 1 (and still voiced by our Jedi friend Ashley Eckstein), but we also see the return of Rex, Anakin’s clone trooper captain, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker (who also has done a few voices in Rebels).

We do also see the arrival of Darth Vader in the storyline after his cameo appearance in the special first episode, and it appears he will be voiced by James Earl Jones.

And one other thing I recently learned – Sam Witwer (Being Human), who voiced Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, will return as well – but this time as Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious.